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Thursday
May 2, 2013 If it’s Tuesday, This Must be … Philadelphia?Filed under: Community, Members, News About ASI, Using Ad Specialties I’m writing this at noon from Pennsylvania. But although it’s bright and sunny outside, to my travel-weary self, it’s actually midnight in Hong Kong – and I’m more than ready for bed. I’m topsy-turvy because I’ve just returned from a week-long business trip to attend the Hong Kong Gifts & Premiums Show, 8,000 miles away and 12 hours ahead of the East Coast where I live. The show is one of the largest in the world for promotional products, attracting over 4,000 exhibitors from 37 countries. Lucky for me, I got to attend alongside veterans like Supplier Global Resource™ editor Michele Bell, publisher Rich Fairfield and Ed Koehler, VP and associate publisher of magazines and catalogs. We were joined during part of the trip by ASI’s China-based SGR sales team (pictured with us at right: Melar Wang, Tony Tian, Alan Lee and Tammy Jing), who travel throughout Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong selling our new SGR memberships. The new, strictly exclusive membership connects non-North American manufacturers and agents with ASI’s North American suppliers. During the show, we celebrated at a cocktail party for ASI® suppliers that was sponsored and attended by SGR members who are Hong Kong and Chinese manufacturers. And, as much as we love our distributors, ASI believes they are most successful by sourcing from trusted ASI suppliers, so we may as well have hung a “No Distributors Allowed” sign outside the reception. (I wish I had a photo of Rich shooing two distributors away who wanted to crash our event!) As reported on our website, the show’s traffic was noticeably slower than in previous years, despite growth in the Hong Kong gift market of 6% in 2012. Still, the show floor was huge, crowded and packed with a ton of Bluetooth-capable items, tech gadgets, smartphone accessories and eco-friendly products. In the photos, you can see one of the many colorful displays from the show, along with Hong Kong Harbor. I’ve traveled to Asia a number of times, and it’s always equally strange and thrilling. While I decided against trying the still-wiggling shrimp served up at one of our dinners, I gladly seized the chance to visit a local friend of an ASI member at his art-filled home, situated on Hong Kong island with a spectacular view of the South China Sea. He’s 72 – and recently became a new father! (Maybe it’s the shrimp?) Hong Kong, which is a “special administrative region” of the People’s Republic of China, is on China’s south coast, bordered by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea. The city is 426 square miles and home to about 7 million people. To put that into perspective, New York City (including all the boroughs) is 469 square miles and has 8.2 million residents. And, while I’m always happy to explore the far corners of the Earth, there really is no place like home and garden. (I’m throwing a pic from my garden up in this blog for fun.) Happily, my next trip is less than 100 miles away – to our New York show, taking place Wednesday and Thursday at the Javits Convention Center, and featuring a special keynote by TLC’s “Cake Boss,” Buddy Valastro Jr., who’s dishing up business advice and handing out cake samples from Carlo’s famous Hoboken bakery. If you’ve done business in Asia, or attended the Hong Kong show, please let me know what you experienced by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. P.S. If you’re wondering about the blog title, it’s a play on the 1969 film, “If It’s Tuesday, This Must be Belgium,” about a 9-country, 18-day bus trip.
Thursday
May 2, 2013 Doing Business BetterFiled under: News About ASI If you’ve ever struggled to understand the nuances of your cable or phone bill, I can sympathize. Which is why I’m happy to announce ASI has streamlined our billing and invoicing materials to make it easier for you to do business with us. Starting this week, you’ll see new invoices and statements based on formats that are easy to understand and to reconcile to your own accounts payable systems. We updated our system because, frankly, we got complaints from members about being held hostage to the old pen-and-paper era. Now, you can pay online and avoid writing that check or licking that stamp. And, if you save your credit card as the card of record, customer service will check if you want to update an existing card already set on autopay or if you want to establish autopay. As part of the process, we conducted focus groups to learn exactly what you wanted. During one session, a member told us, “ASI has thought of everything with the redesign.” That’s our goal. Highlights of the new invoices and statements include:
Members can log on to the Account Manager Tool at www.billpay.asicentral.com to:
Once you’ve had a chance to review the new system, please let me know what you think by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. Hopefully, doing business with us will be easier than with your phone or cable company! I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Monday
April 22, 2013 Experience the New ESP WebFiled under: Member Benefits, News About ASI, Using Ad Specialties To triumph in today’s supersonic business world, technology must pass a pretty stiff litmus test for speed, ease and intelligence. With that, I say welcome to the new ESP Web® experience. ASI’s world-class technology is taking a big step forward with a major upgrade that will help distributors increase sales and power up productivity. The best part? It’s already live for all users of ESP. And there’s no fee for the upgrade. Current ESP Web subscribers are automatically upgraded. Check it out, and if you have any questions, click here for tutorials and more. From the start, our goal with this upgrade was to make ESP® even more of an online business partner – a partner that intuitively knows what you want and helps you get it, as quickly and easily as possible. So we made it as close to a real-world Google experience as possible – with performance speeds on numerous features increasing a whopping 60%. Put these simple, intuitive tools to work for you to search and source products faster than ever before. ASI’s technology and user experience teams worked for over a year on design and implementation of the new ESP Web, incorporating critical feedback from numerous industry focus groups in order to transform the ESP experience. The hottest new ESP Web features include:
If you’re not already a believer, please demo the new ESP Web at our upcoming ASI Shows® in New York City (Wednesday, May 8 and Thursday, May 9) and Chicago (Tuesday, July 16 through Thursday, July 18). And if ESP has made a difference in the way you do business, I want to know. Please post a comment or e-mail me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Monday
March 25, 2013 Long Beach Show Strikes GoldFiled under: ASI Shows, News About ASI Our inaugural ASI Show in Long Beach, CA was a true success, from Friday’s full day of education through two very busy exhibit days. Suppliers who wondered how the weekend dates would affect attendance were happily surprised by the turnout, and feedback overall was terrific. Stacy Horton, of Dard Products (asi/48500), dubbed the show “awesome” and said she was so slammed by heavy foot traffic she had to call for help in her booth. “ASI did a great job of getting the right distributors here,” she told us. “I honestly think next year many more suppliers will attend and take larger booth spaces. I have so many requests to follow up on.” Peter Zeiger, of Geiger (asi/202900), brought a team of 15 to the show, which he rightly described as an “event,” thanks to education, a Gala Celebration at Gladstone’s, tons of suppliers and big-name keynote Ben Stein. “Attending an ASI Show,” he said, “allows you to take your game to the next level.” We moved the show from its traditional berth in San Diego about 120 miles north so thousands of greater LA distributors could take advantage of a more affordable, accessible alternative. Distributors and suppliers alike said they loved the spectacular waterfront location and easy access to major highways, three airports and first-class accommodations. New shows can be a risk for everyone. Happily, the show delivered, attracting a solid turnout of industry distributors who aren’t ASI® members but who either joined on-site or who likely will in coming weeks. All told, The ASI Show™ Long Beach, which took place Friday, March 22, through Sunday, March 24, at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, featured 61 education sessions (attended by 400+), over 300 top-flight suppliers and 11 team-building distributor sales meetings. Our keynoter, Ben Stein (pictured with me, backstage), really packed the house. We had so many people we had to bring in extra chairs. If you only knew Stein through his turn as the stone-faced teacher in the “Ferris Bueller” movie, you were in for a treat. Funny, frank and informative, Stein shared his unique take on small-business success. Click here for an ASI TV interview with Stein, taped after his keynote, and click here for a previously recorded ASI Radio interview. Laura Hook, of EmbroidMe of Cypress (asi/384575), told us Stein made her laugh and cry. “What more could you ask for?” she said. “His point on not taking things for granted was a good one and an impactful one. We cannot sit around and whine about what’s not happening because we are the ones who need to get up and make things happen.” What a great takeaway! Although it was tough to leave 70-degree weather behind to return to a spring snowstorm back East, I’m happy to be home – and eager to hear what you thought of the new show. Please let me know by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Important note about Long Beach 2014: it’ll take place during the week, Tuesday, March 25 through Thursday, March 27. And don’t forget: Other upcoming 2013 ASI Shows are New York (May 8-9) and Chicago (July 16-18). To learn more about exhibiting or sponsorship opportunities, contact Karen DiTomasso, our sales VP, at kditomasso@asicentral.com.
Thursday
March 21, 2013 ASI Launches New Long Beach ShowFiled under: ASI Shows, News About ASI ASI® will be on the West Coast this week for our inaugural show in Long Beach, a spectacular waterfront city whose motto is “where the action begins and the fun never ends.” Located less than 20 miles from Los Angeles, Long Beach provides distributor and supplier members from the West Coast and greater LA areas an affordable location along with easy access to major highways, airports and first-class accommodations. The ASI Show™ takes place Friday through Sunday at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center. We’re expecting over 300 top-flight suppliers, 11 team-building distributor sales meetings, a value-added Education Day featuring 61 business-building sessions – and lots of action on the show floor Saturday and Sunday. Our keynote speaker on Sunday morning is the very smart, very funny economic commentator and “Ferris Bueller” star Ben Stein, who promises to tell us all “How to Ruin Your Life – and How to Make it Great.” If you only know Stein from his famously funny turn as the stone-faced teacher from the 1986 John Hughes movie (“Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? Anyone?”), you might be amazed by his largely conservative insight into some pretty serious economic issues. Along those lines, I’m looking forward to talking to our West Coast members about the California economy, which after five long, hard years appears to be finally turning a corner. According to the local papers, there’s solid evidence of job growth, economic stability, a resurgent housing market and rising spirits in a state that was among the worst hit by the recession. It would seem that in a state that’s struggling to find its economic footing, promotional products’ high ROI and relative low cost would be the perfect angle to pitch on any sales call. If you’re at the show, don’t forget to stop by the ASI booths for a demo of our increasingly popular and highly-rated ESP Mobile™ apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, which have topped 10,000 downloads since launch. We know the apps are popular because ESP Mobile for iPhone users, for instance, have awarded that app 4.5 stars. As further evidence of user engagement, product searches in ESP Mobile nearly doubled in the last three months alone. Click here for an overview of cool app features, including speak to search and virtual samples. And don’t forget: Other upcoming 2013 ASI Shows are New York (May 8-9) and Chicago (July 16-18). To learn more about exhibiting or sponsorship opportunities, contact Karen DiTomasso, our sales VP, at kditomasso@asicentral.com. And for complete coverage of the Long Beach show, including blogs and videos, check http://www.asicentral.com/. Finally, if you’re with us in Long Beach, please let me know what you think of the new location by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Thursday
March 21, 2013 It’s Official: ASI is a Great Place to WorkFiled under: News About ASI Carol Albright, our intrepid senior VP of human resources, likes to say that ASI® employees “work hard and play harder.” This week, Carol got the ultimate confirmation that ASI is a very happy place indeed when it was announced that we won three “Best Places to Work” awards. For Carol, the best part of this competition is that it was strictly decided by employees, which means the people who work here gave ASI the greatest possible vote of confidence. All told, we won “Best Places to Work-Large Company” (among companies with more than 100 employees), “Best Place for Working Moms” and “Best Employer for New Graduates.” ASI previously won “Best Places to Work” awards in 2012, 2011 and 2010, so I think it’s official: this is a great place to work. Greater Philadelphia Media sponsored the contest to recognize top regional employers, based on nominations by their employees. ASI was presented with its awards at a fancy luncheon at the Pen Ryn Mansion in Bensalem, PA. Carol’s happiness was in full evidence in the text she sent me from the awards ceremony (where she also took the photo of the awards): “Felt like the awards just kept coming … I was so excited I hyperventilated … These awards are because our employees voted for us … OMG.” Part of the reason why we won is because ASI offers competitive benefits, an array of educational programs, an award-winning Wellness Program and diversity initiatives. In addition, employees can enjoy on-site day care, Starbucks and a café featuring healthy options, free fitness classes and gym reimbursement, casual dress every day and community service events. As for the “fun” part of the equation, we’ve got everything from field days, ice cream socials and Halloween parties to an annual holiday mixer. In addition, we always recognize creative thinking in our employees with quarterly president’s awards and an annual employee awards ceremony. And we’re always looking for more talented people to join our team. To apply for employment at ASI or for more information on the company, click here. Current job openings include sales reps, marketing/copy manager, product manager, business intelligence DBA, senior designer, product and technical support director and controller. Congratulations, Carol. Now, breathe!
Friday
March 15, 2013 Congrats to a Winning Editorial TeamFiled under: Community, News About ASI, Research ASI had good reason to cheer this week when Counselor® magazine was honored with its fourth Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for its 2012 “State of the Industry” issue. This award is a really big deal. Considered “the Pulitzer Prize of business media,” the Neal Awards recognize the best in business-to-business editorial achievement and are B-to-B’s most prestigious and sought-after editorial honors. The judging panel, chaired by Diana Henriques of The New York Times, selected a mere 46 Neal Award winners out of 138 finalists from an original 640 entries. Winning entries were selected for exhibiting journalistic enterprise, service to the field and editorial craftsmanship. As you know, Counselor’s annual State of the Industry issue is packed with statistics, largely compiled and analyzed by our executive research director Larry Basinait. Editor Andy Cohen steers this massive ship from concept to press, which requires the hard work of every Counselor staffer. It was previously announced that ASI’s Wearables®, Stitches® and Counselor magazines were named finalists for five Neal awards. ASI magazines were recognized among several legacy publications, including Broadcasting and Cable, Architectural Record and The American Lawyer. Tuesday, a big group of us went to New York City for the awards announcement. In the photo above, editorial staffers Joe Haley, Andy Cohen, C.J. Mittica, Christopher Ruvo, Dave Vagnoni and Larry Basinait celebrate with Melinda Ligos and Rich Fairfield. When the big moment came and they announced Counselor as a winner, we cheered so loud we couldn’t even hear what the judge’s had to say about our entry. Later, we learned one judge said of Counselor’s SOI package: “The value of the story lies in the data-based reporting.” Judges also praised the story for being comprehensive and well-paced. In less than 10 years, ASI magazines have been honored with nearly 100 journalism awards and remain the only industry publications to ever win the prestigious Neal Award. What that means is our entire editorial department is world-class – and I couldn’t be more proud. For members, it means consistently providing top-notch education and educational resources to improve your business and further the professionalism of this entire industry. Below are the details on our award winner and finalists. If you haven’t already, these stories are well worth the read. The SOI issue in particular contains a ton of practical advice and business strategies you can turn to all year long. Neal Award winner is:
Neal Award finalists are:
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